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Monday, September 4, 2017

I seriously tried to continue my NCIS story, but my muse refused service. It just didn't work. So I just kept going with Stargate Nova Roma. I ended up writing six more chapters. The first four are Chapter 13 through 16 of the original story, which I have (kind of) renamed Season One.

So, what about the last two chapters ? Well, I am happy to announce that they are the start of Stargate Nova Roma - Season 2. In order to allow readers to filter out Season 2 chapters, I added a new label (NR-2). I also changed the chapter names. In season 1, the Chapter Title format was Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter ?....The new one is SG Nova Roma - Chapter 2.? (Hopefully, this format will continue in use for a looong time.)

Monday, August 7, 2017

So...I ended up riding a wave a of inspiration a bit longer then planned. Chapter 9 of Nova Roma went up on 23 July, followed by Chapter 10 on 29 July. Then I began work on Chapter 11. The thing was....Chapter 11 (which was posted on 6 August) ended on a cliffhanger.

And it just felt wrong to leave said cliffhanger unresolved. (That's one of the reason's I started this story, so that I could - hopefully - one day, solve what happened to Eli.) And today I posted Chapter 12. As for Chapter 13 ?....well, that is unlucky. Unlucky because it will have to wait. Tomorrow I am resuming work on my NCIS story. Later.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

So, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that my NCIS isn't going anywhere at the moment. The good news is that the reason it isn't going anywhere is because I have been working on Stargate: Nova Roma. Since publishing Chapter 6 - see previous entry - I have put out Chapter 7 (on 15 July) and Chapter 8 (22 July/today).

And now I am starting work on Chapter 9. But don't worry, I plan to resume work on my NCIS story in August. I have, however, noticed by switching from section at FanFiction.net - from Battlestar Galactica to NCIS - I have basically started from scratch when it comes to readers. My new story has no followers (yet), while Battlestar Xanthi ended with 20-ish readers in the end. But those are the realities of writing outside your comfort zone.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

I was planning to continue work on my NCIS story. And I will. However, I discovered - much to my dismay - that I had not updated/continued Stargate Nova Roma since February. So I decided to put my NCIS story on hold - for a bit - and write a new chapter. Which I am glad to report is now up on my fiction Blog 128.

Monday, June 19, 2017

...After my vacation on Crete, I got a letter from the local hospital. And on May 23, yours truly went under the knife. Fortunately, it was nothing dramatic. You see, I've been having some trouble with my teeth. There simply wasn't enough space in my mouth for all of them.

So my dentist recommended that I get my wisdom teeth pulled. And after some talking with the folks at the hospital, it was decided to make it a proper surgery and yank all four at the same time. Then my vacation happened and when I came back, I found that the surgery had been scheduled. So I went...

Au ! While the surgery went fine, I need tons of painkillers the week after. But that was not the problem. The problem was the tube which they used to keep me breathing during the surgery had nicked the side of the windpipe. And this led to throat infection. Thank Heaven for antibiotics. (They're a pain to swallow, but they get the job done.)

After that, I finally got back to my day job and found....well, a mess. While I was down for the count, somebody else had also gotten sick and the result was...chaos. (I won't bore you with the details.) The result of this was that my inspiration levels dropped like ton of bricks. However, I am happy to report that they are now slowly recovering. The results can be read here:

Friday, May 19, 2017

After a very nice vacation on Crete, I had to some catching up to do. Between accumulated mails and chores, I need three days to get things back on schedule. But now my house is clear, the fridge is stocked and I have time to write my blog again.

While on Crete, I have actually made an interesting discovery about my blog. I've been mispronouncing the name for ages. Xanthi Rising is named after the Battlestar Xanthi. And said Battlestar is named after the town of Xanthi in Greece. I picked the name because Xanthi is located in an area known as Thrace, which was a nice tie-in back to Kara Thrace (aka Starbuck).

The thing is...in Greek (both the current version and the ancient), the X stands for CH. And that is pronounced as a soft G. So while you write Xanthi, it is pronounced Ganthi (or maybe Chanthi ?) The things you discover on while on vacation. 😉

Books
Another thing I did in my vacation was make some progress in my book case. For...well, way to long, I have had a shelf of books I still have to read. But now I am slowly making progress. And speaking of books....

Martijn

On 14 May 2014, my cousin Martijn passed away. And now, there is a book about him. Alas - sorry for my English readers - this book only comes in Dutch. I picked up my copy today and have already skimmed through it. And I can tell you...it is a true work of art. For those of you who wish further information, there is more behind these links...

Finally, today I got around to updating my scrapbook. When I was in my pre-teens, I would often ask my grandparents about how things were they were young. And some times, they could not remember the answers to the questions I asked them. This inspired me to 'secure' some things for nephews and nieces for when they were older.

So I brought a photo album and started gluing in little things, creating a personal (family) history books of sort. Amongst the things found in this scrap book are a couple of movie stubs, pieces of airlines tickets (including one from my recent vacation to Crete), a article on the moon landing, some old stamps....

And plenty of other things. This left me with one last thing to do. Update my blog. Which is now done as well. 😊

Thursday, May 4, 2017

...alas, the last (couple of) month(s) have been far from inspirational. But now the waters are calming down again. And summer is approaching fast. Which - over here in the Netherlands - always begins with a day of sadness and a day of joy.

The 4th of May is the Day of Remembrance. We remember all the people who died fighting for freedom in WW2 (and since). The 5th is Liberation Day, the day the Nazi occupational forces surrendered. These are always odd days.

Beyond that, there is no much to tell. I'm getting around to some chores I have been putting off for a while...such as properly writing my LinkedIn page (the current version is rather minimalist, and basically version 0.5) and taking another hard look at my Bol.com page. And, of course, dusting off Xanthi Rising. Hopefully, this will increase my Internet visibility a bit. (Basically, the time has come to do some Internet housekeeping.)